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List Price: $24.95 | | Label: Wellspring Media
Salesrank: 16833
Released: July 10, 2007 |
| Our Price: $17.13 |
| Used Price: $14.99 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Logan is a soft spoken and lonely 13 year old boy with a crush. Unlike his equally lonely friend Joey, who obsesses over the sexual exploits of the popular boys, Logan is fixated on the boys themselves, particularly Rodeo Walker. Logan's infatuation with Rodeo inspires him to create a new persona named Leah. Leah and Rodeo grow close through whispered late night phone calls, and when Leah agrees to meet Rodeo face to face it is Logan who must finally prove that he can ask for what he so achingly wants.
Description of Wild Tigers I Have Known:
Arriving with the Gus Van Sant stamp of approval, Wild Tigers I Have Known blurs the line between indie film and experimental art. With the aid of cinematographer Aaron Platt, Cam Archer fills his debut with dreamy visuals, like Wong Kar-Wai set loose in Santa Cruz. The story concerns 13-year-old Logan (the full-lipped Malcolm Stumpf), who lives with his frazzled single mother (Fairuza Balk) and harbors a crush on 14-year-old Rodeo (Patrick White). Through a chance meeting, Logan gets to know the object of his lust, and abandons nerdy best friend Joey (the bowl cut-sporting Max Paradise). Rodeo prefers women, so Logan invents a female persona named Leah, who exists only on the phone, to initiate a virtual relationship (Ruth Elliot voices his alter ego). Meanwhile, mountain lions roam the woods, encroaching on human habitation. This concerns Logan, who identifies with the confused cats. Plus, the school mascot is the tiger--and that's as far as the filmmaker takes his title metaphor. Archer got his start by making shorts with Platt, and Wild Tigers often feels like a short writ large. Filters, dissolves, and ambient sound design contribute to Logan's sense of disorientation. At its most self-indulgent, the film comes dangerously close to the superficial aesthetics of a music video or fragrance ad (the DVD includes Archer's clip for Emily White's title song). For moviegoers tired of creaky comedies about gay first love, where the hero has a spunky gal pal with a sideline in snappy retorts, however, it represents a distinct alternative. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Wild Tigers I Have Known Reviews:
Expecting conformity in art? 
2008-09-05 - Unlike the other 'critics' here, I found this film quirky and ultimately refreshing. The director isn't trying "too hard to make a art house film", rather, he's made something unusually refreshing without blood gore. Since when are art house films supposed to be predictable and pat? Given that the boy's mother is queen of the 'double bind'- "I love you/I hate you", he's desperately trying to deal with that and his burgeoning gay sexuality. Maybe most people in America are now so sated that they are expecting some patent commonalty in gay, coming of age films. The gay community both old and young are about DIVERSITY, not cookie cutting conformity even in how we develop our individual sexualities. My childhood was not like this boy's, but still I empathize with exactly what he went through. What may put off a lot of the viewers is the fact that the boy's fantasies are intermixed with his actual physical reality. That worked in "My Life In Pink", it works here and I think over all the movie is brilliantly posed and executed. Even the very ending was enchanting where the boy waves and runs up the hill like a bunny, how could you not love him?
Think Twice Before Buying! 
2008-06-27 - This movie is even more muddled and hard to follow than most customer reviews tend to indicate. As a fan of foreign films, I am accustomed to storylines that do not follow the Hollywood formula, but didn't just abandon the formula, it was painful to watch. Some scenes were so odd that I have to wonder what the director was thinking, while others clearly didn't play out as the director intended. The pacing was glacial, the acting was stiff and wooden and the characters were two dimensional bordering on stereotypical. Save your money and buy this one at a yard sale for 50 cents.
a very slice-of-life movie i suppose 
2008-05-15 - this movie was not bad to watch, it just didn't captivate me. it felt like the very slice-of-life movie that it was, with all of the context an observer would have if they just randomly popped into your life too. i guess it was about how horrible middle school is. it was nothing special.
An insightful, wonderful film. 
2008-04-14 - If you enjoy films about the awkward path of adolesence, this movie is for you. It doesn't hurt that the GORGEOUS Patrick White co-stars as the boy the main character has a crush on.
excellent movie
2008-03-15 - I saw part of this movie on the independent film channel, I was instantly drawn to this movie and bought my own copy. The film focuses on Logan who is 13 and gay, the assults and hate he endures at school are all too real, he is mostly a loner except for his friend Joey who is also basically a loner also. After a session with his counsler he meets Rodeo a teen who is about 3 years older than him just guessing. Logan becomes fixated on Rodeo, part of it is sexual, he visualizes Rodeo while mastrubating, and part of it must be he is an outcast and a loner and needs a friend. Logan takes on another personality as Lea a seductive teen girl to try to seduce Rodeo, after some seductive phone calls they meet in the caves and Logan must live up to his actions, he does but Rodeo walks away, they still meet in the next scene roller skating, so it;s kind of left up to the viewer to decide if they did anything Logan fanticized about. I disagree with the back of the DVD description that describes Logan's crush as impossible, you know these kind of relationships happen, the hang up about age difference is a social predjuice. Logan would benefit from having an older friend/possible lover who would love him and help protect him from being beaten and harassed, is that so bad, I don't think so, maybe some people would rather he end up like Matthew Sheppard. The description also says they are mis matched, the fact that they hung around and got along good together countradicts that, again the ageism curse. I don't hold that description against the movie though. Some of the filming is strange in spots but that doesn't hamper the message or plot of the film. This film touched my soul mainly because I have lived it, as have many others, it had a profound impact on me. Again, excellent realistic film.raven skater.
